‘Mummy, why do all of the runners have black skin?’

[MoiraRoseIsMyQueen]

So, my 5-year-old has just asked this question while watching the 100m heats, and I’m struggling to answer! Does anyone have any advice on how to respond, without making generalisations or being racist? I am so sorry if I sound ignorant but I said ‘because people from Africa tend to be very good at running because of their genetics’ - and then thought that is probably not a good answer. Help!

It is not racist to talk about someone's skin colour, anymore than it is racist to talk about a hair colour. What would be racist is if you were to attribute certain characteristics to that person BECAUSE of their skin colour, as a descriptive factor though skin colour shouldn't be something to shy away from. It is important to have these discussions with children because nobody wants to erase race/culture. By shying away from something and treating it like a taboo subject you are teaching your children to ignore differences rather than embrace them.

@youngandbroken 👏🏽 yep this was a more articulate comment than mine. Well put.

Nope, it has been shown that there is more genetic variation within groups of people considered 'white' or 'black' then between. If you work in blood science and you just 'can't pretend' there aren't racial differences, then you meed to consider that you field is institutionally racist. Before you know it some crackpot will link blood type to intelligence or criminality and we'll be back. to 1659 Britain or indeed 1981 in the UK if we. think about recent documentaries about our sad past..

This has been shown time and time again. So, a white British person might share very little with a Russian, or white looking Jordanian. Same as a black person fro Zimbabwe might share very little with someone from Brazil. but the Brazilian and the German might share loads.

This has been shown time and again.

Sickle cell exists in white people etc etc.

Black people have been kicked down some strange evil heinous paths, but we would share whatever outcome that resulted in with any other person dragged through black history, and of course there have been some (though nothing like the Transatlantic Slave Trade).

I believe if people were more confident that they were not racist, they would have an easier time talking to their children about this stuff.

I just answer my kids, because I am 100% sure I'm not about to come out with some anti-Black BS.

If you find you are tripping over your words etc you need to think more about it and practice. Give it effort and time, otherwise you do risk being part of the problem.

@BigWoollyJumpers

UK Sport runs year on year campaigns to identify possible Olympians. They often look for specific body types for specific sports. To apply you obviously have to be good at sport, but they assess you to see whether you are a good "fit" into a particular sport. Helen Glover is a good example.

So, to say certain types of people are better at certain sports is not controversial, this also, inevitably does highlight that some ethnicities/races are better suited to certain sports because of body type or height, or weight, or bone structure.

They would have missed Usian Bolt, then. He does not have the body type that should be great at sprinting at all, yet there he was, smashing every record while not even taking it hugely seriously or bothering to do up his laces.

The answer, 'because they are the best from their country' is fine, but unless i am misunderstanding the op, the child wants to know why the people with black skin were faster than the people with white skin, so it's not really an answer.

Prettty sure it's not to do with body shape. My lanky 6ft 2 17 year old runs like an elephantine Bambi.

@Deadringer

The answer, 'because they are the best from their country' is fine, but unless i am misunderstanding the op, the child wants to know why the people with black skin were faster than the people with white skin, so it's not really an answer.

I think the child has picked up on the obvious that black people seem to have bodies more suited to sprinting. And have beaten all the other races regardless of the country of origin.

So saying they are the best in their country is a bit of a non answer.

Op I love 5yo questions - watching the diving - mine asked 'what are they wearing?' All I could think was not-a-lot before he decided they were in PANTS!

@Sirzy

I wokld just say they are the best runners for their countries. No need to over complicate things

This.

You start banging on about genetics and studies have shown and the dangers of over-generalisations and possibly debunked pseduoscience and the complexities of prejudice, even positive, in the current geopolitical climate, and all that's gonna happen is your kid's gonna stroll into school and say something embarrassing like "well she's faster because...!"

And also, do kids even really ask this? Weird.

@MoiraRoseIsMyQueen

So, my 5-year-old has just asked this question while watching the 100m heats, and I’m struggling to answer! Does anyone have any advice on how to respond, without making generalisations or being racist? I am so sorry if I sound ignorant but I said ‘because people from Africa tend to be very good at running because of their genetics’ - and then thought that is probably not a good answer. Help!

Sorry but on this one it's a chinny reckon. This is not what a 5 yo would come out with, but OK carry on,

Rege, have you not heard of possibly the most consistently greatest female gymnast there is, Simone biles?? Lordy, give me strength!

Well all I can say is that my kids have been watching athletics since they were teeny tiny and they've never asked this question despite us living in a boringly undiverse part of the country

No idea about the OP's question. But curious about @MoiraRoseIsMyQueen 's name, wonder if we are fans of the same actress?

I think there is likely a combination of factors but certainly some of the reasons why someone is a good athlete is their genetics. Other reasons might be their motivation, the society around them the amount of resources etc.

Totally understand your puzzlement..

You have been asleep since 1960... you just woke up.. switched on the telly and discovered a bunch of black people running for England right?!

What a shock. Nothing to do with racism limiting opportunities while funnelling people into limited acceptable areas like sports right?

While you're busy teaching your little one Eugenics though, don't forget to mention there's so few black, white working class, and women in the House of Commons (or anywhere in the halls of power) is ALSO because of their mixed heritage / genetic makeup too. Rock on !!

Nope, it has been shown that there is more genetic variation within groups of people considered 'white' or 'black' then between.

It can be true that there is generally more gentic variation within races then between races, but also that for specific traits that there is more variation between races than within. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

[quote Piggywaspushed]scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=hilltopreview

keelesu.com/yourunion/campaigns/current/ongoing/bebetterdobetter/mythbusters/mythbuster4/[/quote]
Thanks for those links. They seem to both contain several straw men arguments which are kind of missing the point. Saying that not every Kenyan man is a good long distance runner so therefore there are not any biological (or evolutionary) differences that could factor seems like a rather simplistic argument. Surely it is feasible to argue (as many other writers/ sports scientists do that the margins at the elite sport level mean that small differences in muscle, lung capacity, body type linked to genetics as well as social, evolutionary and cultural factors make the difference between a medalist and a decent club runner. Having the raw materials that have the possibility to make a good athlete also needs the right social, training and environmental inputs to make a champion. To say that black men and women are better runners so they win simply due to biology is unfair, racist, and dismissive of the huge amount of effort it takes to achieve.

This is a long winded way of saying that as with most things, it’s a matter of nature AND nurture.

It's not rude to talk about skin colour. I feel we should not avoid saying the word "black" when talking about skin colour to children; any hesitancy or avoidance may introduce the idea that black skin is a physical flaw that children should be afraid to mention, in the same way that we encourage children not to point out physical traits which are deemed to be unattractive within our society. (It's so awkward watching people cringe when they need to refer to someone as "black")

Your child is not too young to also learn about physical and physiological differences that occur within our species. I'd probably choose the more obvious physical ones like height, lean muscle mass for sport skin colour for UV protection/absorption. When your child gets older, time to talk about sickle cell, thalassaemia, metabolic processes to produce more heat, O2 capacity for people at high altitudes, lactose persistence. They're all fascinating adaptations which have allowed us to flourish and populate every ecological niche.

Once they hit the age of ten or so, you might want to ask them to explore why the sports which need money and private transport, like horse-riding, swimming, skiing have such a skewed ethnic profile.

Does your daughter ask this type of question when she sees all white people playing sports or on TV in general?

I don’t think there’s any reason for meanness either- I remember a kid at school asking a similar question when I was about 8 maybe. I don’t think it’s an unusual question from a child. We shouldn’t be so frightened to talk about race.

Obviously though race is primarily a cultural rather than genetic thing. But we are talking about elite athletes who have an unusual combination of genetics. It’s not unlikely to think that some communities have more of such people than others. In fact it’s highly likely. It’s not the same as saying all black people are good at running and whites can swim which is not true anyway.

@NotDavidTennant

Nope, it has been shown that there is more genetic variation within groups of people considered 'white' or 'black' then between.

It can be true that there is generally more gentic variation within races then between races, but also that for specific traits that there is more variation between races than within. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

Yes, and moreover there may be more variation between races at the very extreme end of the differences, which is where the Olympic athletes fit in. It would be perfectly possible for there to be far more variation within each race than between races for 99% of the population, and for there still to be a difference in the extreme ends. I don't know enough about the genetics in this specific instance to know if it's true for this case, of course. But I wouldn't discount genetic factors (as in, the probability of having a particular combination of genetic advantages being higher in some races) working alongside environmental factors to explain the success of black sprinters.

They would have missed Usian Bolt, then. He does not have the body type that should be great at sprinting at all, yet there he was, smashing every record while not even taking it hugely seriously or bothering to do up his laces.

Of course Usain Bolt took it massively seriously- it was an act he played out very well which is why he is so loved.

Yona Knight Wisdom was picked up as a child by the Leeds diving talent search. He is in Tokyo right now representing Jamaica. He is not built like a diver as he is really tall (especially springboard like he does) but they took him on and nurtured him like all the others. He'll tell you his height is a hinderance but he still manages it. (It's worth googling him in 1m comps- it's utterly insane, the board enters the water when he's springing!)

Of course 5 year olds ask these sort of questions - not all will but at this age they are becoming increasingly self aware and start noticing differences between themselves and those around them. A few weeks ago my 5 year old asked me why her friend had 'different skin' to her, children are not colour blind and do notice differences.

@patcarmichaelenergy - what does it matter if she does or not? She’s a child of 5.

My kid asked me if kids with dark skin could be Jewish (in response to a new kid at her nursery). When she was 4. I explained they could and told her about some famous black Jewish people. She was curious rather than trying to be offensive.

Just come back to this thread after being out, thanks for all the comments and I’ll have a proper read through. But @daisychain01 you’ve obviously never met my son! Do you have kids? Because these are the kind of deep and difficult questions kids ask all the time!